Three Filipinos quarantined in Hong Kong over swine flu

The Department of Foreign Affairs announced today that three Filipinos were quarantined at a Hong Kong hotel, the same hotel where a swine flu-infected Mexican checked in recently.

I hope our thousands of Filipino workers there take extra precautions.

Here is the full press release from the DFA:

The Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong reported that there are three Filipino guests at the Metropark Hotel in Wanchai who were covered by the seven-day quarantine operations imposed by Hong Kong health authorities.

Hong Kong’s Department of Health imposed, as a temporary emergency measure, a seven-day quarantine on its reported first case of H1N1 human swine flu at Metropark Hotel on 01 May. The H1N1 patient is a Mexican male who checked in at the hotel but later brought to the Ruttonjee Hospital after experiencing coughs, sore throat and other flu-like symptoms. The quarantine will last until Friday, 08 May 2009.

Among those covered were a Filipina, her Australian husband and their son, and another Filipina from Cebu. They are all temporary visitors in Hong Kong. There are no Filipinos working at the hotel as staff members.

Consulate officials were able to communicate with the Filipinos and concerned Hong Kong authorities and were informed that the Filipinos were in good health.

The Hong Kong government will cover hotel and airline tickets/rebooking charges for all individuals who were the subject of the quarantine.

To date, the Hong Kong government has not reported any additional H1N1 case. END